Mirage and the Newt
Jasmine wasted no time as soon as she was out the door and in the hall. She ran straight for the Mirage's office and to the dreaded Chokey that held one of her precious students. Fortunately, she knew where the key was and started to unlock the door. She pulled it open to reveal a tan-skinned girl who had gone very pale and shook in fear. The girl looked at her teacher, the princess with tears in her brown eyes as the teacher knelt down to examine her. "Are you alright, Zinnia?" Zinnia nodded numbly as she cried a little. Jasmine let the scared child hug her so that she could calm down. "It's alright, you're safe now..." It didn't take long for Zinnia to calm herself down to a reasonable level and the two ran back to class after the girl had retrieved her bag from the corner. They came in to see Mirage holding Hakeem by his ankle, crying as things fell out of his pockets. "...next time I tell you to empty your pockets, you'll do it faster!" "Yes, Miss Mirage!" Hakeem sobbed as she felt the blood rush to his head. Zinnia looked at him with worry as she sat down in front of Hana. The desks were in rows that day. Jasmine stood next to the two girls' desks, hoping that less harm would be done to the children than usual. Mirage was pleased with the pale expressions on both Jasmine and Zinnia. "Miss Mirage..." Jasmine made eye contact with the vicious cat woman. "This might be the most interesting thing you've ever done." As it was rare that Jasmine ever left the class alone with the cat-like woman. This had been an emergency though, and one of her pupils had been shoved into the Chokey. She treated the students well, and actually more like her own children. She especially felt this towards Zinnia, as the girl's family obviously did not care for her. Zinnia then looked at Hakeem as she dropped the poor boy. "Sit down, you squirming worm of vomit." Hakeem rushed to grab his various objects from the ground. "Thank you, Miss Mirage." He whimpered as he made his way back to her desk. The Mirage then grabbed the pitcher that had her water, and Hana's newt in it. She was about to pour herself a glass when she suddenly stopped, placed the pitcher and glass on the desk and rushed up to Lina. "Get up." Lina quickly stood up at attention, making sure that her hair was in a ponytail still, though it had been made into one only minutes before. "Can you spell?" Lina blinked and hurried into responding. "Princess Jasmine taught us how to spell a long word yesterday. We can spell 'Difficulty'." The Mirage growled. "You couldn't spell 'Difficulty' if your miserable life depended on it." Lina took a deep breath. "She taught us with a poem." "A poem, how sweet." She was using her sickeningly sweet voice to mock the child. "What poem would that be?" Lina took another deep breath before starting. "Mrs. D, Mrs. I," She waved her hands a little to get some assistance. Everyone in the class, save for the adults, started chanting along with her. "Mrs. FFI, Mrs. C, Mrs. U, Mrs. LTY." The Mirage pounded her riding crop on Lina's desk, startling all the students in the room to look forward once more. "Why are all these women married?!" She growled at Jasmine. "'Mrs. D, Mrs. I?' You're supposed to be teaching them spelling, not poetry!" Lina quickly sat back down at her desk, hoping to avoid the headmistress' wrath while worrying for her teacher's safety, as many did. Zinnia's mind was also filled with this concern, but also with the fear of the Mirage sending her back to the Chokey for her father's crime. Mirage slammed her riding crop on Zinnia's desk this time, scaring the young girl. The Mirage then returned to Jasmine's desk. "I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up." She started pouring some water into the glass that she had been provided for, the newt falling in and she continued ranting on. "I think they do it deliberately just to annoy me." She brought the glass to her lips and drank, not noticing the small amphibious creature that was swimming in it. The children and Jasmine, on the other hand, did notice it. The children couldn't help but whisper about it, save for Zinnia and Hana, who knew exactly what and where the creature had come from. "What's funny?" Mirage asked as she put the glass down. "Hmm? Come on, spit it out! Speak up! I like a joke as much as the next fat person." This got a few of them to shush up as they realized she knew about that term. No child spoke up, but Mirage looked down at the glass anyway, her senses finally telling her something was wrong with the water. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the newt. Some of the children couldn't help but giggle. "AH! It's a snake! It's a snake!" She put a hand to her throat. "AAH! It's a snake!" Hana started to chuckle now while Jasmine only let out a small smirk. Zinnia raised her hand, wanting to get something cleared up. "One of you tried to poison me! Who?!" Then she noticed Zinnia's hand raised up, at an ill-gotten time. Part of the mad cat woman's mind told her that it had to be the girl behind her, for Hana had brought the water up while Zinnia was in the Chokey, but at the moment, she didn't care. She just really hated Zinnia at the moment. "Zinnia!" The other students turned towards the girl in question who now had a calm face on, hiding her fear and anger as she had trained herself to do. "I knew it!" Zinnia lowered her hand. "I just thought you'd like to know, it's not a snake; it's a newt." Mirage was puzzled. "I beg your pardon? What did you say?" The headmaster hissed. "It's a newt, Miss Mirage." "Stand up, you villainous sack of goat slime, you did this!" Zinnia stood up calmly. "No, Miss Mirage." "Did you act alone? Or did you have accomplices?" Hana looked at her friend with worry, wondering if Zinnia would tell on her. Much to her relief and surprise, she only responded with an "I didn't do it." "You didn't like the Chokey, did you?" Mirage growled as she made her way towards the young girl. "Thought you'd pay me back, didn't you?!" As though it were possible to be in two places at once. "Well, I'll pay you back, young lady!" "For what, Miss Mirage?" Zinnia's gaze kept even, straight, and staring at her headmistress. "For this newt, you piss-worm!" The Mirage shouted in the child's face. Zinnia was trembling slightly, but not enough for the Mirage to notice. "I'm telling you, I didn't do it!" Mirage stood up and growled as her mind cleared a bit. "Besides, even if you didn't do it, I'm going to punish you." She started toward the desk again. "Because I'm big and you're small, and I'm right and you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it." Mirage's gaze fell on the glass with the newt in it as the headmistress stood behind the desk. She silently wished that it would tip over and splash all over the metal man, and the newt would startle her. "You are a liar and a scoundrel. Your father is a liar and a cheat! You are the most corrupt low-lives in the history of civilization." Now Zinnia's gaze hardened on the glass, wishing even harder for the glass to tip over. Hana noticed something happening. She noticed strange mystical energy flowing from Zinnia's eyes and touching her mother. She was afraid at first, but her fears subsided as she saw what seemed to be strong from the young girl's gaze. Mirage kept ranting, unaware of the shaking glass in front of her. "Am I wrong? I'm never wrong. In this classroom, in this school, I AM GOD!!!" On the last word, Zinnia's gaze hardened into a squint as she tipped the glass while using her ghostly abilities, merged with Zinnia's mental energy helping her, to throw the newt onto the metal wearing maniac. "WAH AHHH!" Mirage screamed as she found the newt was on her chest. Not wanting to touch the slimy thing, she started jumping around in fear. Zinnia's eyes snapped wide open as she saw what she had wished to happen. She quickly joined in on the whole class' laughter as their headmistress seemed to be dancing, trying to get the newt off of her without touching it. Even Jasmine was having a hard time keeping a smile off her face. Eventually giving in, Mirage flung the newt off her, making it land on a light fixture before falling into the waiting hands of Azzam. Azzam quickly placed the newt into his desk to hide it from the headmistress. Mirage took only a moment before choosing her victim to blame the newt upon. "YOU!" She growled once more at Zinnia. "I didn't move!" It was the truth, but that didn't mean she was going to admit to tipping it over with her mind. That was just silly... wasn't it? "You did this." The principal repeated as she made her way towards the girl's desk. At this point when the principal seemed to want to strangle the child was when Jasmine interceded. "How could she have possibly done it if she was sitting way over here?" Mirage glared at Jasmine and noticed the fire in her eyes. She knew that in a fair fight, and with her pupils' help, she could easily defeat the Headmistress, but Jasmine was never one for hostile takeovers. The blood in Zinnia's ears was pounding, blocking out the threatening speech that the headmistress made as she made her way towards the door. She sighed in frustration and said, "I'll be watching you. Each and every one. When you turn the corner, when you go to your little cubbies to get your smelly little coats, when you skip merrily to lunch, I'll be watching you. All of you. And especially... you!" She pointed at Zinnia one last time. She left the room, and Zinnia sat herself down at her desk once more, hoping to not pass out from shock and fear. She kept looking at the glass, wondering how it had happened. It only took a minute after the headmistress was gone for the students to get up again. Jasmine, being the benevolent princess she was and the teacher that cared for her students and would teach them anything, no matter how long it took. She instantly went to check on Hakeem, who had been held up by her ankle while she ushered the others outside for recess. Hana looked at Zinnia, giving her a smile that would light up the whole room. "Thanks for not telling." Zinnia looked up at the girl and smiled back, fear of her own power still in her eyes, as well as confusion, which was rare for Hana to find in the young genius' eyes. "Best friends don't tell." Her minds replayed the events and slowed it down to a funny scene that would forever be in her mind. She chuckled. "She can really dance though." She made movements to imitate the headmistress while still in her chair. "Yeah, think she'll be willing to teach us how to do that dance?" The two laughed. Jasmine gave a weak smile at the two, knowing that less than an hour ago, Zinnia had been traumatized by the Chokey. She helped Azzam to place the small newt back into its jar that Hana had left next to the sink before ushering her outside. "Go on, outside with the others. I'll clean up this mess and then be out to help you all with the birdfeeder, okay? I'll be out in a minute." Hakeem nodded and ran to catch up to Lina and the others. Zinnia looked around and grimaced as she realized the entire class, except for Princess Jasmine, was outside. "Excuse me for a minute, Hana." Hana nodded, knowing that her friend was still confused. Zinnia walked up to the desk where Jasmine was sitting while looking for some wipes to clean up the mess. "Your Highness... I have a confession to make." "Yes, Zinnia?" Jasmine replied to show she was listening. Zinnia sighed and frowned. She knew she had felt the power behind her eyes boil over and shoot out, but she also knew that they hit something else before they spilled the glass. She could only explain one part, so she explained the part she knew. "Your Highness, I did it." Jasmine was confused by the young pupil's confession, as it made no sense. "You did what?" "I made the glass tip over." Jasmine, however, spoke in understanding that her parents did not. "Oh, sweetheart, don't let Mirage make you feel this way. It is no one's fault. Nobody did it. It was an accident." "I did it with my eyes, watch. I'll prove it to you." Zinnia set the glass back up on the desk with water in it, and glared at it, trying to will it to fall over as it had earlier. Jasmine sighed and gave a small kind smile to the girl. "It's wonderful that you feel so powerful. Not many people feel that way, especially after an encounter with Mirage." Zinnia started muttering for it to tip over but found that her mind just wasn't providing the power it used to. "It's all right, Zinnia," Jasmine told her. She looked back to her as she tried to convince the princess that she really had tipped over the glass with her eyes. Zinnia sighed. "I really did to it, Your Highness." Jasmine gave a small smile of understanding. "One of the odd things about life is, sometimes, you can do something until you wish to show it to someone, and then you can't. Or sometimes you think something's broken and you take it to be fixed--" Zinnia shook her head, feeling a little upset with herself. "This isn't like that." "Oh?" "I don't know... maybe I made myself tired." Zinnia said, trying to keep things honest. Jasmine thought about it and knew that the young girl had been through a trying morning already. She then noticed the concern on her student's face, then gave her another smile. "Zinnia... would you like to come over to my home this afternoon? I'm sure Aladdin and I would love to have you over." Zinnia smiled back. "I'd like that very much." They both left with smiles. There would be no more use of her powers for today. Things just kept getting better. Category:Fan Fiction Category:Matilda Fanmakes